After CNN brought her case to public attention, she finally got her transplant. Dalton is also ill, as he has contracted lymphoma owing to his transplant. Unfortunately, Katie is now in the end stage of renal failure and is in hospice care. But he’s now at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, near where his family lives, fighting pneumonia and a virus.
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Hopefully Dalton will be discharged next week but there is also a plan to fly him to the University of Kentucky Medical Center as soon as possible so he’ll be closer to her.
“If we only get to spend a day and a night together, we’ll be happy with that.”
“Sorry, but do I know you?” he responded. “She did not let cystic fibrosis define her or beat her”.
Thanks to donations from across the country, they were able to raise enough money to get Dalton flown out to visit Katie.
Dalton was forthright with Katie that he had Burkholderia cepacia, a contagious infection for people with cystic fibrosis. Their love story has never been easy as when they wanted to meet for the first time after falling in love, Katie doctors have warned her not to meet another CF patient as she could contract the bacteria. Katie’s nurse says she has fought long and hard.
For the past one and a half years, Katie has been in and out of the hospital. “That was definitely something I had to think about, but when you have those feelings, you just know”.
After months apart from Dalton, Katie found out she would receive a lifesaving lung transplant. Both were 20 years old.
Katie Prager, 26, is battling Cystic Fibrosis from her home in Flemingsburg. “I’ve had this time with Dalton and so I might as well keep looking forward”, she said. She says her body is exhausted and there are so many things that can’t be fixed.
Dalton’s mom, Renee Strausner says the movie is nothing compared to their real life. “If that’s what God has planned, then I’m ready”. She has had several visitors this past week and she has loved seeing everyone.
There are things she’s done she wishes she could take back, she said.
Police are calling into question the death of Rita Maze, who called her family Tuesday and said she had been kidnapped and was in the trunk of her auto.
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Another message: Do what makes you happy.
